Cat ate chlorinated vermiculite - Help!

My cat appears to have eaten some plant material called vermiculite that I had soaking in water/clorox. She vomitted some up so I'm pretty sure that's what I'm looking at. Any experience with this? I checked the material data sheet on vermiculite and there is no info on what to do about an ingestion.

Call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center

The telephone number is (888) 426-4435. There is a $55 consultation fee for this service.

Be ready with the following information:
- the species, breed, age, sex, weight and number of animals involved
- the animalâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s symptoms
- information regarding the exposure, including the agent (if known), the amount of the agent involved and the time elapsed since the time of exposure.

Have the product container/packaging available for reference.


Stephanie

I can see one additional problem with vermiculite: it absorbs water. So that's not something you'd want in your cat's stomach. It does sound like the cat probably vomited it all up, and if there was any left it would probably pass, because the grains are small. But maybe a call to the vet to ask?

When vermiculite is wet it expands and if eaten can cause an obstruction, this unfortunately is a common problem for people that use it for reptiles. If the cat didn't eat much it may pass but the bleach is the more immedient concern.
I hope you were able to get emergency vet care and that the vermiculite problem is handled as well.

Goodluck and let us know how the kitty is doing.



I'm not sure if anyone would have heard of asbestos being in vermiculite, but that was a single mine contamination in the 70s. Now all mines are checked, so there isn't a possiblity of asbestos in the vermiculite you buy. (Mentioned just in case anyone wondered if something in the vermiculite itself was toxic.)

Thanks so much for this!